Stephanie Penn is a fine art photographer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She received her BA in Geology and Studio Art from Cornell College and has continued her photographic education through courses at the University of California, Berkeley and California State University East Bay. She uses her dynamic background in both visual art and science to provide viewers with a unique visual perspective. Her artwork focuses on appreciating nature and wildness in the urban San Francisco Bay Area. Her photographs rely on subtle details, such as colors and weather patterns, rather than major landmarks to create a sense of place. This enables the viewer to notice subtleties that may ordinarily be overlooked.

Current Work: The Growing Wild Project (www.growingwild.co)Growing Wild is a photography project about finding and appreciating nature in the city. The photographs in this series document the beautiful open spaces that exist within the densely populated San Francisco Bay Area. These open spaces take on many forms including city and state parks, public gardens, and even private backyards. These spaces provide both a respite from the hustle and bustle of the city as well as valuable habitat for plants and wildlife. Our open spaces are part of what defines this striking region. What we choose to do with our open spaces—both large and small ones—can have a big impact on our urban quality of life. It is my hope that through visual documentation of nature in the San Francisco Bay Area, I can call attention to our valuable open spaces—and encourage appreciation of them. Because protecting our valuable open spaces is important to me, a portion of the sales of artwork from this project will be donated to select organizations whose mission is to protect our local urban nature.